The rapid evolution of the telecommunications industry has resulted in the convergence of voice and data transport over a number of diverse architectural and technological domains, such as, e.g., Time Division Multiplexing (TDM), Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM), Synchronous Optical Network (SONET), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Frame Relay (FR), Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) and Internet Protocol (IP). The choice of the backbone transport protocols depends on the service mix. For example, public multi-service providers such as AT&T having customer Service Level Agreements (SLAs) may utilize a full stack of technologies, while national Internet Service Providers (ISPs) may choose direct IP over DWDM networks.
Several vendors provide the different technologies. This situation creates network environments where one technology is provided by one vendor and another technology by a different vendor. Technology providers supply element and network management systems to manage their technologies, causing a creation of a “smoke-stack” network management environment for the service providers. The network management situation is further complicated by multi-vendor support even within a single technology, and a service provider therefore generally needs to partition the management of its growing network. For example, a TDM voice network and its Operation Support Systems (OSSs) can be regarded as one domain, while an ATM data network and its related OSSs can be regarded as another domain.
Lack of integration across different technologies has rendered the management and control of such a multi-layer “network of networks” very complex and costly. More specifically, these environments prevent quick introduction of new services, prolong service implementation, complicate service maintenance activities and prolong maintenance intervals, and lack service capacity management capabilities.
Therefore, what is needed is a inter-domain network management architecture that addresses the above-mentioned problems while taking into account the existing service provider investments in technology-specific management systems and their evolution and also preserving the integrity of network management data.